|
|
| |  | |
Martin Falkingham, W M Falkingham (Balne) Ltd, Balne Hall, Balne, Goole, Humberside. 800 acres wheat, 300 acres barley & 300 acres oilseed rape, plus peas, linseed & potatoes.
Combine details: 9880i STS equipped with 630 (30ft) cutting platform & HarvestSmart
Interview with combine operator Stephen Bulmer:
The business bought a new STS 9880i combine with 30ft cutting platform for the 2005 season, to replace two competitive makes equipped with 18ft headers. This followed a demonstration in 2004 when we ran all three machines together for comparison; the John Deere combine ran right through until 2am with no problems, while the other two machines had to stop working at midnight.
Right from the first day’s harvesting I thought the STS was great, I really liked it. Even with the big header, once I got used to the controls the combine just fitted like a glove, and the automatic header tilt system is fantastic.
I particularly liked the HarvestSmart automatic feedrate control option. To start with I simply used the auto settings, and found these were not too far out, it was just a case of fine tuning them to suit the individual crops. It was always set for maximum output – generally I don’t go too quickly, as we like to get all the crop in the tank, and don’t like to see any thrown out.
Having said that, in the oilseed rape I found I just couldn’t go fast enough. I was cutting at 9 to 10kph, twice as quick as I’d been used to. It seemed that the faster I went, the better the sample was, with no grain losses. When the crop’s fit, you can make a perfect sample with this combine – a neighbouring farmer who stores our oilseed rape said it was the best he had this year. Average outputs were between 40 and 50 tonnes an hour in wheat and 30 to 40 tonnes in barley, while in the rape we got up to about 15 tonnes an hour.
As the farm’s full-time workshop mechanic, I’ve also found it a good machine to work on and maintain. It’s the small details – for example, all the spring tensioners have a ‘tell-tale’ on, which is brilliant, it makes them so easy to adjust.
All round the STS is a really good combine, and it’s more than coped with the workload of the two previous machines.
|
|
|
|
